Pakistan al-Qaeda chief 'killed'

Al-Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan and another top aide are believed to have been killed, US sources say.

Usama al-Kini and his lieutenant, Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, were both killed in recent days, US counter-terrorism officials said.

Al-Kini was believed to be behind last year's deadly attack on the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, they said.

Fifty-five people were killed when a truck packed with explosives rammed the hotel in September 2008.

Both al-Qaeda suspects died in South Waziristan, on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, an unidentified US counter-terrorism official told Reuters news agency.

"These deaths are a significant near-term degradation of al-Qaeda's leadership," he added.

He gave no details of how the men died. But the Washington Post, also citing intelligence sources, said they were killed in a missile strike by a CIA drone aircraft on a building on 1 January.

"They died preparing new acts of terror," the US daily quoted a counter-terrorism official as saying.

The men - both born in Kenya - were on the FBI's most-wanted list over the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Al-Kini was also thought to have been behind an unsuccessful attempt on the life of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was later killed in a separate attack, US officials said.